SDCard Upgrade

[Slider46]

Just wanted to share my experience with an sdcard upgrade.

The stock card that comes with the Droid is a SanDisk class 2 16GB Micro SD. Class 2 is the slowest speed rating. This low speed rating was causing my phone to lag at boot-up (during the "Preparing SDCard" process) for 30-40 seconds during which, I couldn't do anything.

From Wiki:

The Speed Class Rating is the official unit of speed measurement for SD Cards, defined by the SD Association. It is equal to 8 Mbit/s, and it measures the minimum write speeds based on "the best fragmented state where no memory unit is occupied":

The following are the ratings of some currently available cards:

Class 2: 16 Mbit/s (2 MByte/s)
Class 4: 32 Mbit/s (4 MByte/s)
Class 6: 48 Mbit/s (6 MByte/s)
Class 10: 80 Mbit/s (10 MByte/s)

These are minimum write speeds so on average - you may get more speed on both read and write.

Anyways, after purchasing an 8GB Class 6 MicroSD (Transcend), I copied my data (about 6GB worth including Music) to the new 8GB sdcard and loaded it into my phone. Now the "Preparing SDCard" process only takes about 10-12 seconds at the most. My widgets load faster and I find moving files around on the card is quicker.

Not bad for a $20 investment.

 

[JerzyGirl]

great info, thanks!

 

[specmac]

Transcend and A-Data both make a class 6 16gb Micro SDHC card. Kingston makes a 16gb class 10 card but its pricey.

 

[Riley]

Cool. I want to upgrade my card when the 32 MB ones come out. Is it as simple as dragging and dropping all files on the original card onto the new one and then mounting it in the phone?

 

[Sweettooth]

Transcend and A-Data both make a class 6 16gb Micro SDHC card. Kingston makes a 16gb class 10 card but its pricey.

Yeah, I haven't queried Google yet on dollars but something tells me I'm gonna get the "Eesh!" face.

 

[Slider46]

8GB should be enough for me right now. Was ~$26 shipped from the egg. Didnt wanna spend the $50-$60 on a 16gb class 6.